Track absence no concern for England at World Championships

Hannah England believes she got her World Championship preparations spot on after easing through her 1500m heat in Moscow.

The 26-year-old, a silver medallist two years ago in Daegu, left to late to qualify, rounding the final bend in seventh before powering down the home straight to finish third in 4:08.05.

England hasn't competed since booking her place on the team with a victory at the British Championships last month and was relieved her absence from the track had not impacted on performance.

“I felt good out there,” she said. “I was quite nervous before because I haven’t raced since winning the trials and that feels like an awful long time ago now.

“Having spent time in Font Romeu and then Barcelona and now here it feels like a very long time since I raced.

“But I am glad to get that one under my belt and now I can look forward to the semi-final.

“I did feel fine physically out there and once I started running all the nerves went.

“Not competing since the trials was just a decision I made in terms of my training block and one that all morning I was questioning but now I know there was no need.”

While England was able to secure safe passage to the 1500m semi-finals team-mate Laura Weightman disappointed, finishing 11th in her heat in a time of 4:14.38, more than ten seconds down on her personal best.

This was also Weightman’s first outing since the British Championships, when she crashed out after a nasty fall, and the 22-year-old Olympic finalist admitted it was too big an ask to repeat her London 2012 heroics.

“I was on crutches for two weeks after the trials with a bruised bone in my foot,” she said.

“Coming into these Championships I’ve had ten days of running just to try and get my body going.

“I was hoping that by coming here I would try and rely on my strength built over the winter to get me through.

“But I just had nothing, no kick, no speed, no real pace in my legs that you have to have at a Championships like this to get you through the rounds.

“It’s frustrating because I know what sort of shape I was in at the trials, it’s just so unfortunate to and go out perform like this.”

Elsewhere, William Sharman eased through his 110m hurdles heat in third, clocking 13.51 secs to progress to the semi-finals.

He said: “I didn’t get the start I would have ideally have liked to get and that left me with a bit of work to do.

“But I think I performed to the best of my ability this early in the morning, so that is the main thing. I got the job done."

Meanwhile, Nigel Levine came home fourth in 45.41 seconds in his 400m heat to also advance to Monday’s semi-finals.

And British champion Asha Philip crossed the line in 11.29 seconds to take third in her 100m heat.

"I thought it was going to be hard to make the top three, then I thought ‘I’m not going out first round’, so I’m definitely going to do it. 11.29 for third - I’m really pleased,” said Philip.

“It’s good, it means I can do it. It doesn’t matter what they’ve run before, I still have to make sure I believe I can still beat them.”